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GB Snowsport Round Up: Stubai and North America World Cups

It was an action-packed weekend for the newly branded GB Snowsport team, with five athletes competing.

There were Brits in action for the first World Cup Slopestyle of the season in Stubai and Alpine races in North America.

Here is a round up from the Stubai, Killington and Lake Louise World Cups:

Stubai Ski Slopestyle

GB Snowsports had three athletes compete in Stubai, Austria for the first slopestyle World Cup of the season. Olympic Bronze medallist Izzy Atkin was riding in the women’s event, whilst James “Woodsy” Woods and Chris McCormick were flying the flag for Great Britain in the men’s comp.

The qualification runs were on the Friday morning before the final and the field was tightly packed in both the female and male events. Nearly 100 athletes competed to qualify over a best-of-two run format.

Atkin qualified in great style with a best run score of 86.00 which placed her fourth and comfortably put her through to the final. 16-year-old Kelly Sildaru of Estonia raised the bar high in qualification with a massive 97.00 score.

On the men’s side, there were three separate heats each one stacked with the world’s best riders, making qualifying a tougher affair than usual. Woods had a solid score of 83.75 to put him through to final. McCormick narrowly missed out on qualification in his heat by two points and ended up placing a career best 26th in Stubai.

After an early morning qualification, it was then time for the main event. Atkin couldn’t quite replicate her morning score and slipped down one place in the final. A fifth place was still a solid start to Atkin’s World Cup season and a performance to build on for the rest of the winter.

Sildaru won the comp with back to back 1080s on her winning run. Switzerland’s Sarah Hoefflin came second, with Swiss teammate Mathilde Germaud in third.

Woodsy couldn’t complete a clean run which heavily affected his score on the day. A score of 67.12 slotted him into 16th place in the men’s competition. Not the result he was hoping for but it’s early days in the winter freestyle calendar.

Only seven points separated the top ten men in a hotly contested slopestyle World Cup final. Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut and Max Forehand of the USA could only be separated by 0.80 points by the judges after both riders landed two 1260s after two incredible runs. Norway’s Ferdinand Dahl rounded out the podium in third place.

Killington ladies Giant Slalom and Slalom

A massive 40,000 spectators watched the World Cup Giant Slalom and Slalom races in Killington, USA. Snow conditions were great for the Giant Slalom, but some late fog drifted over the Slalom course on the Sunday.

Britain’s Alex Tilley had an impressive first run of the GS where a few top skiers struggled, she placed 16th and was looking to score her first World Cup points of the season. After the first run Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel lead the way ahead of Italy’s Federica Brignone, with Stephanie Brunner of Austria in third.

The second run was a challenging set and a lot of skiers found it hard to stay on the racing line. Tilley started off with good aggression on the top section of the course but eventually made a few key mistakes further down. Despite this, Tilley finished and placed 21st. This result was a good springboard for the Scot to build into the GS season. A stunning run by Brignone brought home the win for the Italian, with Mowinckel and Brunner completing the podium.

It was then time for Slalom on the Sunday. From bib 57, Tilley had a big task to qualify for the second run so had to attack. Unfortunately, she was unable to complete the course this time around. Home favourite and reigning World Cup champion Mikaela Shiffrin won the US race ahead of Petra Vlhova of Slovakia, with Sweden’s Frida Hansdotter third.

Federica Brignone | Ladies' Giant Slalom | Killington | 1st place

Lake Louise male Speed Events

It was the first speed events of the World Cup season with a Downhill and Super G in Lake Louise, Canada. Britain’s Jack Gower was the sole representative for Great Britain. Gower has history with the Lake Louise course, in 2017 he spectacularly crashed into the side netting which resulted in broken teeth and an injured leg.

Gower’s persistence and focus has seen him recover from that crash, which has enabled him to continue to race at the highest level. On Downhill day the Brit finished 69th but it was a great learning curve after his huge crash last year. Max Franz of Austria won from bib 1, with Italy’s Christof Innerhofer and Dominik Paris completing the podium.

Gower gained confidence from his Downhill performance and rose up the standings in the Super G. A 48th place was a great improvement on a course that saw ten racers unable to finish. A great stepping stone for future speed races.

Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud took the top spot of the podium in the Super G ahead of Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria, with Swiss skier Mauro Caviezel third.